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VForce behaves poorly after whoops

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  #1  
Old 10-15-2003 | 12:44 AM
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Default VForce behaves poorly after whoops

I took my vForce to St. Anthony and every time I would go over a large section of whoops my machine would totally crap out on me. It acted like it was flooded or the choke was on........sort of how reverse feels without the override on. It wouldn't get any speed and flooring it was the only way I could get anywhere. If I shut the machine off and back it it started acting fine, but I could duplicate it everytime by going over a section of whoops.

I know this type of thing has been posted here, so I took my machine into my dealer thinking they could get all kinds of help from Kawasaki. In the forums it has been posted that it is caused by a carb problem of some sort, but my dealer contacted Kawasaki who told them they have never heard of this on a vForce so now they are chasing throttle and choke cables, grounding wires etc.....

What I was wondering is how common is this problem?...I know I have seen at least one other post. Secondly how could Kawasaki forget about it so quickly. I want my those guys chasing down the right problem, not wasting my riding time tracing cables!

thanks for any help....or just words of support.
 
  #2  
Old 10-15-2003 | 12:57 AM
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Default VForce behaves poorly after whoops

It might be the flip over safty switch on the fuel pump acting-up.
 
  #3  
Old 10-16-2003 | 06:27 PM
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Default VForce behaves poorly after whoops

Mine did the same thing when I first got it. In fact, my first ride it sputtered and died after going through some whoops and it took me forever to get it re-started. It also did it on the dunes 2-3 times after going through whoops. I posted my displeasure here on this forum and I had Kawasaki calling me within hours trying help resolve the problem (not sure how they tracked down my home phone number). Anyway, I spoke with a guy named Joe at the Kawasaki Customer Service in California and he had a number of things for the dealer to check, including the float level on the carbs. Within an hour of talking with him, the dealer called and wanted me to bring it in. Their analysis was that fuel slosh would cause the fuel pickup to go dry when applying both front and rear brakes on a hard stop, and it would kill the motor. That was the only symptom they could re-create and said there was currently no fix for the problem.

Long story made short is that the problem eventually went away without further work from the dealership. They checked everything out, but never found a problem anywhere. After riding a month or so, it never happened again. I haven't been riding in about 3 months now, but it was OK last time out.

Just looked in my file and I do have the log # for the complaint to Kawasaki. The log # is 948744 and the guy's name is Joe Nocizki. His phone number is 949-770-0400, x2574. He was very helpful to me and was motivated to resolve my problem.

Here is what I posted back in April:

"The motor acts like it is flooding and stalls after getting out of the throttle. It only does this after a section of rough terrain, like whoops. The dealer spent a whole day letting all of the service techs ride the **** out of it. Their opinion was fuel slosh, and the only time they could get it to die was riding wide open throttle and locking up the brakes front and rear together. They said the tranny could not backshift fast enough to compensate for the immediate stop. That makes sense, but that is not what is causing my machine to stall. I'm thinking it has something to do with the float level in the carbs.


 
  #4  
Old 10-16-2003 | 07:48 PM
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Default VForce behaves poorly after whoops

This happened to me once too. I came up a hill, and when I stopped, my V died on me and took a little while to re-start it. If you guys hear of a fix, please let me know.
 
  #5  
Old 10-16-2003 | 09:15 PM
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Default VForce behaves poorly after whoops

my prairie would do this to when i would drag race at the pismo dunes and go over the woops on the drag strip it costs me alot of time
 
  #6  
Old 03-16-2004 | 07:28 PM
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Default VForce behaves poorly after whoops

Dealership never did find anything, and they couldn't duplicate it at the shop.

I was hoping this would magically sovle itself over the winter. However, my first ride out I experienced this same thing again![img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-mad.gif[/img]
I was going over a small jump several times, on the 4th or 5th time my machine started acting up; backfiring, unresponsive. I sqashed in the throttle but would only go about 5 miles an hour. It acted it had a limiter, very similar to going in reverse. I shut the machine off and on several times, after about 15 mintutes it started running fine again, but the next bump it instantly started choking again. I shut it off again, sat for another 10 minutes and it ran fine all the way back to the truck.

It didn't look or feel very good to be sitting on a sand hill broken down while the Suzuki's ran circles around me.

I never have problems with it dying or restarting....its always a performance problem.

Any ideas what could be causing this? I have rejetted and replaced the spring, would problems with either of these cause these symptoms? It definaltey is only caused after whoops or jumps, so is it possible something is getting knocked out of place?

Thanks for any help!
 
  #7  
Old 03-17-2004 | 12:30 AM
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Default VForce behaves poorly after whoops

I would suggest shutting it down immediately when the problem begins and pulling the plugs. I had a somewhat similar problem with my P650; I had to set the float levels to the minimum. In your case, I would suspect flooding; if the machine was starving for fuel it would begin to run properly again once you slowed down.
 

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  #8  
Old 04-01-2004 | 02:17 PM
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Default VForce behaves poorly after whoops

I guess what I am looking for is to see if the plug is wet with fuel? Thanks for the suggestion I will try it out this weekend.

How is the riding in Nova Scotia? I lived there for awhile (Halifax) and vacationed there a couple of years back. Beautiful area of the Globe.
 
  #9  
Old 04-01-2004 | 03:27 PM
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Default VForce behaves poorly after whoops

My P650 and V both do this, but not on whoops. When I climb a steep hill I hit the incline fairly fast, this will cause the same problem. I have just stopped hitting the hill so fast or pick a less inclined spot. This seems to happen to all the V-Twin Kawasakis, just another qwuirk to deal with.
 
  #10  
Old 04-01-2004 | 03:35 PM
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Default VForce behaves poorly after whoops

The Keihin carbs that were used on the small Jet Skis, water crafts had the same problem, as you went over a series of waves, you were burping the throttle, because of the rough water, it would make you lurch ahead then back.

What they found was the accelerator pumps in the carbs, the little pump that gives it that extra shot of gas, so the throttle response was instant, was causing a rich situation, because every time the throttle was burped by the jump, it purged gas. what they did was adjust the linkage for more free play.

I'm not sure where or if the keihin have a similar pump and not sure if this is happening or similar, but just a though.

 


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